Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Mass Transit, how I got my word count in for the day

I actually got to sweat today while attempting to reach my goal of writing 1250 words for the today. Yes, I said the word sweat.

The great thing about writing today, was that I accomplished 90% of it while riding around on mass transit. I wrote during my 40 minute commute to work, then during the 20 minute ride out to the Wal-Mart in Jersey (where I bought a blowup mattress), during the 25 minute wait for the bus in the Wal-Mart parking lot in 90° weather (this is where the sweating happened), and during the 45 minute commute back home.

While in the parking lot, I couldn't help but laugh as sweat rolled down my back and formed on my face. One would say I glistened, but when you get right down to it, it's sweat. I could only think of Sven, and hoped one day of sweating would be enough. I think I'd prefer to keep my writing locations air-conditioned.

The last bit of writing was the trickiest, the ride home on the A-Train with all my loot. You see, I picked up just a little bit more than a Coleman queen-size blowup mattress. I routinely seem to forget how much I'm capable of carrying home on trips like this. Each time I swear that next time I'm gunna bring a grandma cart, but I never do because every time I go out shopping "I know" I'm only going to buy one or two things.

I piled and stacked my bulky purchases in front of me and on my lap, the tower threatened to topple over many times while sacks slid off my lap, and I worried about the cheap plastic sacks ripping. Somehow, I managed to pull out a notebook and write nonetheless.

I made it home this time, but just barely. I had to stop every 25 feet or so while in the subway and out on the street, to let my hands and forearms rest. (Wal-Mart didn't have big enough bags to hold the storage containers I'd purchased.) Suffice it to say, that the compulsory wide grip I maintained in order to carry the container and miscellaneous goodies home gave my hands a workout that rivaled any workout session using one of these little beauties.

Much to my relief, I made it home with bags intact.

Word count for the day, 1401. Turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. (1796 if you count this post, well it was 1796 until I started editing this post in blogger.)